Musings From The Pa Gya Literary Festival In Accra
I love books. I love being around them and even just seeing them is satisfying for me. Such feelings can only be understood by a true book lover. If you’ve ever taken a whiff of the pages of your favourite book to enhance your experience of the story; then you know what I’m talking about!
The first thing that caught my eye when I got to the event on Saturday afternoon, was the bright array of colours resulting from the different book covers on display. There is something about art that seems to be enhanced when it is presented in surroundings that are beautiful. The white tents and manicured lawns of the Goethe Institut, proved equal to the task of serving as a backdrop for the festival.

What I especially enjoyed was the variety of storybooks for black children. It makes my heart rejoice whenever I hold a storybook that is designed to encourage black children to read. These are the type of stories that I hungered for as a child, but couldn’t find; stories that were fun and engaging but presented in drawings of people and things that I could relate to. I lingered for a while at the book stands and allowed myself to soak up all the beautiful animations. I felt that warm goodness, that wells up from inside when a deeply held longing is gratified.

After about an hour of browsing through the books, I headed over to the events section. The first event I attended was entitled: ‘Zero To Hero — How To Create An African Hero Everyone Can Relate To’. The title of the session alone is enough to write a separate article about, in fact, the titles of most of the sessions were mouth-watering. Here is a list of some of the sessions I managed to catch:
- Perspectives on the impact of colonialism on contemporary Ghanaian Literature.
- Conversations About Travel Writing.
- Live From Across Africa: Poetry Performances

The Pa Gya Literary Festival proved to be a worthwhile way to spend a weekend and I left the festival feeling enriched by the conversations. If ever one is in Accra between the 18th and 20th of October, Pa Gya is an event to certainly visit.